A Good Year For Murder

The setting is Fort York, Ontario. It is 1940. The year is not providing to be a good one: WWII has started. Closer to home and more importantly, a holiday prankster is at work. In February, Junior Alderman Gertrude Valentini receives a Valentine’s Day gift of a dead chicken with an arrow through its heart. In March, Senior Alderman Emmett O’Dell’s white toy poodles were dyed a brilliant paddy green. And so the months go, though the pranks turn more sinister.

Fort York is hardly blessed in its Chief of Police, Horace Zulp, or in its Mayor, Phinneas Trutt. Two less effective leaders would be hard to imagine. However, Fort York does have Albert V. Tretheway, Traffic Inspector. One wouldn’t expect that a traffic inspector would play a major role as detective, but Tretheway has an inquiring, and an adept, mind. And in addition, this is Fort York. Everything in Fort York seems to be a bit off kilter.

This mystery mostly kept me engaged, though the action lagged from time to time. However, the denouement was fascinating, and made up for earlier longueurs.

Review

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